CT600 online filing

We have just found that we cannot submit CT600's for periods ending after 1st April 2011 until October.

This is apparently not due to IRIS, but because HMRC will not be updating the new rates of tax until October, this is apparently on the HMRC website, gleaned from the IRIS knowledge base:

Accounting periods ending after 31 March 2011

Budget 2011 announced changes to Corporation Tax rates and allowances from April 2011 including reductions in the main rate of corporation tax from 28 per cent to 26 per cent and the small profits rate from 21 per cent to 20 per cent.

The rate changes only affect returns with accounting periods that end on or after 1 April 2011 with filing dates of 1 April 2012 or later.

These changes will take effect on the date that Finance Bill 2011 receives Royal Assent (expected in July 2011). Corporation Tax Online will then be updated in October 2011 with the new rates. In the meantime Corporation Tax online will use the old rates.

If you want to file early, and before Corporation Tax Online has been updated with the new rates, you can do so if your company has no tax liability because the rate changes won’t affect you.

If your company does have a tax liability you’ll need to wait until our online services are updated in October to file with the new rates. If you can’t wait and have an urgent need to file your return before then, please contact your HMRC office for further advice.

This is disgraceful from HMRC. They make us invest in the online filing software, training and systems to help them but we then discover that it is impossible to file the vast majoirty of returns for months. It's madness.

I have had a hunt on HMRC's website and could not see anything to this effect.

This isn't the first time this has happened; the new rates aren't technically the law until Royal Assent has been granted after the MPs have had their summer hollibobs, but it's more noticable now given the mandatory online filing & iXBRL situation. The HMRC advice does seem to suggest that you can file returns with no liability, and that you should contact your local HMRC office if you urgently need to file a return with a liability & the new rates.

I only found this out yesterday when trying to file an April return online, I thought the chap at IRIS must be mistaken when he said HMRC are updating in October. I called HMRC to have it confirmed, it didn't seem to be a big issue to them.

I know I am not a software expert, but how difficult can it be to change the rate when Royal Assent is granted in July, surely it shouldn't take 3 months.